The Pasadena Tournament of Roses officially invited the Beverly Hills Tournament of Roses Committee to participate in the 2011 Rose Parade. Beverly Hills will return to the world-famous parade after a 22-year absence.

 The Beverly Hills City Council unanimously invited the newly-formed Committee, incorporated as a 501c(3) non-profit corporation, to submit an application on behalf of the entire community. The Committee, comprised of Directors Fred Hayman, Robbie Anderson, Brian Rosenstein and Clif Smith, met with Tournament officials and submitted the application a month ago. Tournament COO Bill Flinn notified the Committee Tuesday of the invitation. Councilman John Mirisch originated the idea, but all members of the Council have expressed enthusiastic support for returning to the signature event.

 Beverly Hills has a long history of participating in the huge event, winning four Sweepstakes trophies in the '20s and '30s and, most recently, Hayman's own float for his "Giorgio Beverly Hills" won the top award in 1989. Anderson's family was a founder of the Beverly Hills Hotel, which sponsored most of the community's past parade entries.  Rosenstein is a city traffic commissioner. Smith is publisher of The Courier.

The Rose Parade is the most heavily-watched event of its kind in the world, drawing over 1,600,000,000 viewers in all 50 states and over 130 countries.  Last year, Shanghai, China entered the Tournament for the first time with that country broadcasting the event live to nearly 1 billion people in China alone.

 This year's theme is "Building Dreams, Friendships and Memories." Jeffrey L. Throop is president of the 935-volunteer organization.

 The Beverly Hills Tournament of Roses Committee will organize fundraising, donations, community participants and supporters to fund the approximate $250,000 cost of the float. Mayor Nancy Krasne has already been recruiting celebrities to participate in a fundraising "bake sale" with great success so far.

 Response from all responsible sectors of the local community has been overwhelmingly positive.

 "Our goal is to unify Beverly Hills, give all of us regardless of viewpoint something we can work together to achieve, and have fun doing it," said Anderson. Rosenstein agreed.  Hayman said: "This is something we must do. We had great success with our 'Giorgio' float and it is time to go back."

"Now that we have been invited, we look forward to having all segments of our great community join in the effort," said Smith.

 The Committee intends to enter a float every year at least through 2014, the City's 100th anniversary.